Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Every little movement

Last week was all about movement.

With friends from California visiting New York, the race to get to as many must-see sights as possible required lots of well-planned, rapid-paced moving - from Lower Manhattan, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the World Trade Center site to the Upper West Side and the American Museum of Natural History, the across to Grand Central and a peak into the Chrysler Building. Oh, and Washington Square and Greenwich Village. Sidewalks, subways, and buses - up, down, over, under, stop, go. Non-stop movement.

Then, the musical movements of Bruce's concert at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall. For Chopin lovers, there was Nocturne No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 37, No. 1 and Waltz No. 2 in A Flat, Op 34, No. 1. For Beethoven fans, Piano Sonata No. 5 in C Minor, Op 10, No 1 and Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-Flat, Op 81a "Les Adieux."

And last but not least were Angela Lansbury's movements in "Blithe Spirit." The physicality of her trance-dance was a show-stopper. It was the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time - so many little quirks and flourishes. And just when you thought she'd played it out, she'd add one more off-kilter bit. Brilliant! You knew she was scenery-chewing. And she knew that you knew she was scenery-chewing. And she gave you yo' money's worth. Well done, Angela, and the entire cast of the play. Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole, and Jayne Atkinson - all superb!

So, yes, last week was all about movement. This week? Other than moving my office to another floor, I'll do my best to move as little as possible.

4 comments:

Liz Hinds said...

How wonderful! Blithe Spirit looks great. I bet Ms Lansbury was brilliant but I don't understand the term 'scenery-chewing'?

MaryB said...

Liz - scenery-chewing is over-acting, playing it for all it's worth. Most of the time that's a bad thing, but in this case Ms Lansbury had the audience in the palm of her hand and knew she could get away with anything. We were with her all the way!

Anonymous said...

What a great time you showed everyone Mary....and that play was the icing on the cake. I'd love that one. Don't think you could have picked a better one to take your friends to. Happy Mother's Day sweetie.... Love, Joy

MaryB said...

Thanks, Joy - come to NYC and I'll gladly be your guide! Happy Mother's Day to you, too -